January 2004 Archives

This morning, my cowgirl and I herded the children and headed for the IHOP corral for a Texas breakfast, where we plotted, planned, laughed, and played.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 31, 2004 | Permalink

Dear Mr. Phillips and Vision Forum Family,

My husband and I have recently been very convicted about our intermitent use of birth control. I read the book Be Fruitful and and Multiply: What the Bible says About Having Children, and was broken hearted, convicted and encouraged about what our Lord’s Word says about children and family. Thank you for publishing such God honoring works in your ministry.

Mrs. J.K.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 30, 2004 | Permalink

Young master Honor Phillips holds court with his older brothers Joshua and Justice. The meal du jour? Why, Moon Pies, of course.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 29, 2004 | Permalink

On behalf of the families of Vision Forum and Vision Forum Ministries, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and generosity this December toward our work. Your generous donations, raised in just a one week time span, allowed us to raise more than $35,000 of the $45,000 necessary to fix our very leaky roof. (As of last Friday, there was still a water pot on the floor of my office to collect leakage during the current ongoing repair work.) Our 32,000 square foot building was a gift of the Lord for our ministry, and we thank Him for providing through you to help us fix a roof that probably hasn’t been replaced in thirty or forty years. We give praise to the Lord for His mercy and kindness.

For those of you who want to help us close the last financial gap on our roof replacement by sending a gift of at least $100 in the month of February (or the end of January), we would like to send you Volume I of our brand new CD series, the Theological Bootcamp. This two-volume, fourteen-CD library contains messages from myself, Dr. Kenneth Gentry, Dr. Mike Butler, and Pastor Jeff Pollard on canonicity, presuppositional apologetics, the law of God, the sovereignty of God, and Genesis vs. the Framework Hypothesis. Check back next week for more information.

To donate online click here.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 28, 2004 | Permalink

This last week, I have been posting a few of the letters from mothers and fathers from around the nation concerned that Andrew Sandlin, a preacher who specializes in Christian worldview, would launch a diatribe of belittlement against mothers by calling them “baby machines,” would create a straw man linking advocates of biblical patriarchy to Roman wife -beaters and mafia kingpins, and would seek to lecture our Christian youth with a vision of cultural dominion based on “exotic marital sex,” cacophonous music, and martini mixing, as per his proclamation quoted below:

We here know that Christians won’t win back the culture by sad-sack “quiet times,” funeral-dirge “worship services,” fifth-rate apocalyptic fiction, tofu Sunday school socials, and Little House on the Prairie bonnets, but by boisterous invocations of the Almighty God, ear-blasting steel guitars, full-bodied Napa Merlots, exotic marital sex, and God-drenched avant-garde teenagers. We won’t win the culture until we get over being embarrassed by our robust, world-affirming Bible. Embarrassed by Song of Solomon’s stunning eroticism. Embarrassed by Israel’s worship dance and loud musical instruments. Embarrassed by Jesus’ water-to-wine miracle (WWJD should really mean, “What Would Jesus Drink?”) ... So crack open the Bible, fire up a Cohiba [cigar], mix the martinis, and crank up the latest Coldplay CD [a British rock group]. (“Those World-Affirming Dudes — crack open your Bible, and mix a martini” by Andrew Sandlin, October 16, 2002, published at RazorMouth.com.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 28, 2004 | Permalink

Many of your letters have not only been passionate, but touching and poignant. Some of you, perplexed that Mr. Sandlin continues to lecture in home schooling circles, have observed the trend of mean-spiritedness on the part of this cleric which can be traced over the last couple of years to barrage after barrage of uncharitable name-calling, innuendo, misrepresentation, and out-and-out accusation against brothers in Christ. As one mother who did not want to be considered a “birthing machine” observed: sticks and stones will break bones, but names can really hurt a mom.

Nevertheless, the straw men and the mean-spirited name calling continues, something we will examine when we publish a formal and more comprehensive response to this current attack on patriarchy, home schooling, and motherhood by Mr. Sandlin. For now, consider the following claims by Mr. Sandlin:

They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as major media, popular music, theater and ballet, and elite universities with the mantra, “The main thing is to have lots of children and to teach the boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and discover dinosaur bones and girls to make homemade biscuits, crochet blankets, and gather huckleberries.” I’m being somewhat facetious of course, but the resistance to cultural leadership in favor of agrarian domesticity is genuine. (2002 CCL Article as quoted in Buried Treasure Books.

There are many Christians who hold these views, and I don’t want to be mean, but they are wrong. They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as the major media and popular music, and theater and ballet and elite universities with the attitude “Well, you know the main thing is just to have children and to teach boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and to teach girls to make homemade biscuits and crochet blankets and to gather huckleberries.” ... And the real problem is that you would get the impression from these folks is that this is the only godly way. In fact, some teach — I saw this recently, and it frightened me — some teach that if you fathers send your daughters off to college, you are abdicating your responsibility as a dad. In fact, some teach that girls shouldn’t go off to college at all. Heaven forbid that we should have educate women! Heaven forbid! Sad, just stay home and raise chickens and crochet blankets.... And by the way, speaking of our dear ladies, where are we going to get those world trained mothers who want to home school their children? They are going to need some college training. (Sermon given on November 8, 2003 in Corpus Christi, Texas, entitled “Very Pious, Very Bad Ideas.”)

With all due respect, I have been around home educators for the better part of my life, I have personally spoken to well over a quarter of a million home educators as a conference speaker, and I have yet to meet one person who believes daughters should not be educated. I know many Christians who object to training daughters to be men, but none who believe that daughters should not be trained to their full potential, practically and academically, consistent with the vision of biblical womanhood so clearly and constantly communicated in the Word of God. Many fathers and mothers take seriously the biblical mandate to protect and train their daughters until they are “given” in marriage, and are exceedingly wise not to release them to a virtual state of independency in God-hating, pagan-culture-drenched universities for four years. Unfortunately, Mr. Sandlin’s simplistic overview is a polemicist’s caricature, not a thoughtful critique of a position which was the nearly universal view in Christendom for two thousand years.

Secondly, I must honestly ask — where has this California cleric been for the last twenty years? The idea that only college-trained mothers (or fathers) can be successful in their home education is not only offensively elitist, but it is a proposition which has been comprehensively and exhaustively refuted on theological and statistical grounds. This type of bad logic was used against home educators by the National Education Association (NEA), local school superintendents, and others during the early days of the modern home education movement. It was refuted so soundly that one hears little of these types of arguments, except when coming from those who are unfamiliar with home education. Tens of thousands of moms and dads without a college degree, yet with outstanding home school success stories, are proof positive that there is no significant correlation between formal college training and the ability to give a child an outstanding program of academics and discipleship. To learn about the home schooling statistics, may I recommend that you visit the Web site of my friend, Dr. Brian Ray at NHERI.

Finally, may I recommend my two-tape or CD series, Making Wise Decisions about College and Life After Home School, for a presuppositional analysis of the issues and facts which it would be wise to consider when evaluating the who, what, when, where, and why of higher education.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 28, 2004 | Permalink

Last year, more than three hundred fathers and daughters joined us in San Antonio for a simply wonderful, enthusiastic day-and-a-half of blessed fellowship. The event was the first Vision Forum Ministries Father and Daughter Retreat. It was pure joy. This year, we will be bringing our Father and Daughter Retreat to St. Louis on April 2 and 3. Mark your calenders. Visit visionforum.org to learn more.

The 2003 event logo. Our mission is to see fathers turn their hearts to their daughters and embrace their great mission of protecting them, loving them, training them, and preparing them for a godly, feminine, and Christ-centered life mission.

Liberty, Jubilee, Faith Evangeline, and myself enjoyed “high tea” as part of our retreat.

The von Trapp family singers (yes, the real von Trapps) gave a wonderful concert as part of our father and daughter ice cream social.

Even though the retreat was for fathers and daughters, we invited the whole family to attend the ice cream social. Here, Beall visits with her sweet petunias.

The first day of the event included lots of father and daughter games. A few of the guys on the Vision Forum staff even got into the act.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 27, 2004 | Permalink

Dear Mr. Phillips,

M.D., Joyful mother of 11

Turning the Words of Cynics to the Praises of God

Dear Vision Forum:

I am not a baby machine, I am a mother, living in the will of my Heavenly Father. Sandlin should crawl out of his ditch and ask me for forgiveness for his insult. K.B.

Doug’s Favorite Mazel Tov — A Biblical Response to Those Who Would Reduce the Beauty of Having Many Children for Christ to Patriarchal Persecution and “Baby Machines”

“Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate...”

Genesis 24:60

Please Don’t Discourage Our Fathers from Desiring to Be Fruitful and Multiply Through Anti-Childbirth Bigotry

Dear Vision Forum:

Amy I.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 27, 2004 | Permalink

This last week, part of the Vision Forum staff traveled to South Texas for three days of strategic planning and family fun. It was our great honor to be guests at the Covenant Ranch, one of the most God-honoring Texas retreat centers of which we know. The remarkable staff of the Covenant Ranch, with their servants’ attitudes and Christ-honoring perspective, made our three days an absolute delight. We enjoyed some tremendous hunting opportunities, bass fishing, the rustic beauty of southern Texas, and the warm comfort of an old-fashioned hunting lodge. For many of our children, it was their first opportunity to participate in a hunt, learn proper field-dressing, skinning, and butchering. The property was abundant in quail, deer, havalina, wild hog, and bobcat, to name a few.

In the above picture, Joshua and Justice practice with their Red Ryder BB guns.

My daughter Jubilee is the family archer.

My boys and I enjoyed a wonderful morning of sitting in a deer blind, quietly telling stories and waiting for varmints.

Sarah Wean teaches my son Honor about the cactus.

The guides at the Covenant Ranch love the Lord and put their hearts and soul into serving their guests. Josh Wean (right) enjoys a meal with our guide Chris.

Part of the Vision Forum staff gathers for a group shot, followed by a sling shot, pistol, and rifle competition.

The back view of the lodge of the Covenant Ranch.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 26, 2004 | Permalink

Dear Doug,

A Virginia Father

I Expect This from the Feminists

Dear Doug

Mother of Four

Biblical Balance

Dear Doug

R. W.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 25, 2004 | Permalink

Dear Vision Forum,

I’ve read Mr. Sandlin’s original article in full, and I found it amazing that a Christian pastor thinks that families who embrace biblical patriarchy believe in “apron-centered, kitchen-table tutelage”—homeschooling that (as Mr. Sandlin wants us to understand) turns young men into mama’s boys who cannot excel in advanced subjects and creates brainless hordes of girls who (according to another of Mr. Sandlin’s sermons) cannot do anything but “make homemade biscuits and crochet blankets and...gather huckleberries.” Honestly! It sounds to me like Mr. Sandlin has spent too much time reading Betty Frieden and Gloria Steinham and too little time visiting the homeschooling families in the trenches. His caricatures do not bear any resemblance to the families I know.

Just for starters, my parents homeschooled my younger brother, my younger sister, and me. My poor, “shackled” homemaker mother somehow conjured up brains enough to teach my brother all the way up through Physics (though she had never gone beyond pre-Calculus herself), at which point he won a full scholarship to college at age sixteen. He is now a computer engineer, writing code that would boggle most minds and helping to run a successful software design company. Gosh, it’s too bad that he was tied to Mom’s apron strings all those years. I don’t know how he managed to get his pilot’s license, write articles for national magazines, and tutor our dad in website design after such a limited, “kitchen-table” upbringing. Beats me. And then there’s my little sister. She studied art, painting, drawing, and graphic design at home and laid out a book that was published when she was 15. She followed that up the next year with another book and today assists her husband with his own home-based website design business. Beats me how she can have the brains to do it, given that Mom taught her to crochet, sew, quilt, can vegetables, make jam, and set a beautiful table—not to mention the fact that she now has four young children of her own (the brainless baby machine that she is) and homeschools the two oldest.

Why does Mr. Sandlin seem to feel that training daughters to embrace a distinctively feminine, biblical role and giving them a solid, jam-packed education are mutually exclusive? Why can’t I teach my daughter to make biscuits and parse Latin? If I teach her to sew, clean house, organize cabinets, plan menus, budget, shop for groceries, entertain guests, and serve her family, does it automatically follow that I’m not going to give her a thorough education in literature, composition, the arts, languages, science, and math? If she doesn’t go away hundreds of miles to college, does that mean she is doomed to a life of brainless serfdom? Hardly! I’ve learned more and read more widely in the eight years I’ve been married than I ever learned in four years of college. Given the choice to go again, I’d gladly say, “No, thanks.” After the deep, thorough education my parents gave me at home, college was so much wheel-spinning. The summa cum laude honors I won hardly seemed praiseworthy given the little effort it took to make high grades in today’s dumbed-down college environment (where 70% of freshmen need remedial English). I’m no baby genius, either. My parents just taught me good study habits — habits that can make education lifelong and rewarding far beyond high school.

Mr. Sandlin seems to have embraced the narrow-minded view espoused by the feminists of the 1960s and 70s, who called housewives “parasites” and felt full-time homemaking could actually make a woman mentally dull and as oppressed as a concentration camp victim. Nonsense! Housewifery and brains are no more mutually exclusive than being an auto mechanic and reading Blackstone. As homemaker, author, and artist Tasha Tudor wrote, “Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it? You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read Shakespeare.” Thanks for adding to all the lovely stereotypes we homemakers have to live with today, Mr. Sandlin. There’s nothing like a knife in the back from the “good guy” camp when you’re already full of arrows from the other side.

“Happy Homemaker and Mother of Five.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 25, 2004 | Permalink

Dear friends, I am truly brokenhearted. Today, the very anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the very day that we should be rejoicing in life, declaring the antithesis between God’s vision for life and the world’s hatred for children, I received on my desk the most remarkable newsletter I have read in some time.

I showed the newsletter to at least a half a dozen people to make sure that I was not dreaming, but was actually reading the words before me. The response from each person was the same — sadness and incredulity. One person actually wrote to me that “[the] diatribe was so far beyond the pale that it left me reeling.”

The newsletter accused some Christian home educators with a passion for biblical patriarchy as “treating their wives as baby machines,” of embracing a worldview similar to the wife-beaters and daughter-murderers of pagan Rome, and the tyrant fathers of organized crime (as discussed in Mario Puzo’s Godfather), of being arrogant spiritual tyrants of the Spanish Inquisition type, and of harming women. This same day, I received a series of tapes and transcripts indicating that the very words of the newsletter were being repeated in sermons delivered in churches at locations around America.

Had this letter come from Planned Parenthood or the National Organization for Women, I would not have been surprised. It did not. This newsletter came from Andrew Sandlin, a man who claims to be a Christian worldview speaker.

Some of you have written me in the past with questions about the numerous attacks (veiled and explicit) of Mr. Sandlin on Vision Forum and our work to encourage the restoration of Christian family culture. I want to assure you that, after several years of silence and personal private appeals to Mr. Sandlin by ourselves and others regarding issues of Christian character in public discourse, we are prayerfully considering (out of necessity) a public response. Please stay tuned.

One mother wrote to me expressing her own hurt over the viciousness and insensitivity of this cleric: “Mr. Sandlin seems to think that all of us who are married to such men are mindless drudges — Stepford Wives without brains who can do nothing other than drag along from day to day, breeding children like so many maggots. God help us! What a perversion of the beautiful and blessed vision of children and children’s children God has given us in Scripture!”

In the same letter she correctly observed that Mr. Sandlin accuses brothers in Christ “of ‘turning their wives into baby machines,’ among other degrading slanders. Friedrich Engels made a very similar remark in 1884 when he wrote The Origin of the Family: ‘The overthrow of mother right was the world historical defeat of the female sex. The man took command in the home also; the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude; she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production of children.’ Can Mr. Sandlin really believe that this is what the proponents of patriarchy think of women when they exhort men to provide for their wives, protect them, shelter them, and nurture them spiritually?”

For the record, I do not think that Mr. Sandlin deliberately planned for his newsletter attacking families with many children as “baby machines” to arrive on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. (To be precise, he accuses husbands of abusing their wives by demanding more babies — as if the decision to have children is a tyrannical coercion on the part of the husband against the wife.) Nevertheless, the irony is compelling: While Christians should be embracing child birth on the thirty-first anniversary of Roe, Mr. Sandlin is focusing his pen on attacking “baby machines.” In fact, he is using the very type of terminology employed by Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) to express disdain for the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.”

My question for men like Mr. Sandlin is this: Which of these babies, these products of “baby machines,” would have been better off, had they not been born? Which of these mothers and fathers would have been better off without that precious child, had they simply resisted the temptation to become “baby machines?” In the years to come, will Mr. Sandlin and his cotere have the courage to look these children in the eyes and say: “Sorry kid, you were the product of an abusive patriarchalist and his baby machine.” And while we are on the subject, which of these parents were sinning by conceiving children? If the procreation of such children to a married man and woman is as tyrannical as Mr. Sandlin believes, are parents who engage in such wicked procreation subject to church discipline? If not, at the minimum, should these patriarchalists who turn their wives into “baby machines” be disciplined by the church for spousal abuse?

Sadly, we do live in a day and age in which some of the greatest persecution against the Christian family comes from professing Christians. May God give us sweet speech which embraces the ethic of life, welcomes babies, boldly proclaims hope for the family, and never ridicules those who take the Bible seriously concerning the blessing of children by labelling them “baby machines.”

Oh, Father in Heaven, have mercy on your Bride. Give us an all-consuming love for your Son, and a passion for His most precious of creations — the young lives You entrust into our care. May your people acknowledge You as the Lord of the womb.

Doug Phillips,
Father of Seven Children

Postscript:

Mr. Sandlin’s Published Vision for Building Christian Culture:

We here know that Christians won’t win back the culture by sad-sack “quiet times,” funeral-dirge “worship services,” fifth-rate apocalyptic fiction, tofu Sunday school socials, and Little House on the Prairie bonnets, but by boisterous invocations of the Almighty God, ear-blasting steel guitars, full-bodied Napa Merlots, exotic marital sex, and God-drenched avant-garde teenagers. We won’t win the culture until we get over being embarrassed by our robust, world-affirming Bible. Embarrassed by Song of Solomon’s stunning eroticism. Embarrassed by Israel’s worship dance and loud musical instruments. Embarrassed by Jesus’ water-to-wine miracle (WWJD should really mean, “What Would Jesus Drink?”) ... So crack open the Bible, fire up a Cohiba [cigar], mix the martinis, and crank up the latest Coldplay CD [a British rock group]. (“Those World-Affirming Dudes — crack open your Bible, and mix a martini” by Andrew Sandlin, October 16, 2002, published at RazorMouth.com.)

Vision Forum’s Published Vision for Building Christian Culture:

1. Turning the Hearts of Fathers to Their Families
2. Proclaiming the Nobility and Glory of Motherhood
3. Reviving the Doctrine of “Women and Children First”
4. Embracing the Blessing of Children and the Sanctity of Human Life
5. Building a Culture of Virtuous Boyhood and Girlhood
6. Reinforcing Godly Masculinity and Femininity
7. Understanding Family Culture as Religion Externalize
8. Teaching History as the Providence of God
9. Developing Biblical Worldview Through Presuppositional Thinking
10. Training Character by Hebrew Discipleship and Home Education
11. Communicating the Applicability of the Law of God
12. Addressing the Ethical Issues of the 21st Century
13. Preparing Men to Stand in the Gates
14. Encouraging Unity Between Church and Home
(“Preserving Our Covenant with God through Biblical patriarchy and multi-generational faithfulness,” published at www.visionforum.org.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 22, 2004 | Permalink

I recently learned of a very misguided cleric, determined to characterize home educators and biblical principles of patriarchy, who argued that if the Bible does not expressly forbid something, it is therefore allowed. He was trying to make the case for birth control. He was also implying that those Christians who oppose birth control are legalists. In my view, this sort of reasoning is specious and deeply flawed.

For now, let’s set aside the fact that, the vast majority of times modern Christians shout “legalist, legalist,” it is because (a) their definition of legalist is “anyone who does not embrace my personal standards of liberty;’ (b) the issue so touches a nerve that they feel they have to either justify their own behavior or attack the advocates of the alternative position; (c) they know that an accusation of “legalist” is the tactical equivalent of Jesse Jackson labeling someone a “racist” (i.e., once the accusation is made, facts no longer matter); or (d) they are simply too lazy, too nervous of the fallout, or too incapable of making an exegetical case for their own position without the use of an ad hominem.

But for now, let’s put aside the issue of “what is a legalist?”

Even more dangerous than tactical name-calling is the denigration of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. In my view, there are two fundamental problems with the argument that “if something is not expressly forbidden, it is allowed.” First, this argument is built upon a system of unbiblical proof-texting. Second, this form of reasoning is contrary to the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. Finally, it is dishonest and hypocritical to criticize others for a standard that the critic himself is unwilling to live by. To be specific, I have never met a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ (parent or preacher) who really lives, teaches, or trains his children based on the premise that if something is not expressly stated in Scripture, it is therefore allowed. As I will explain below, most parents and preachers object to the attendance of children to X-rated theaters, notwithstanding the absence of a specific proof-text on X-rated theaters in the Bible.

The Christian should begin with the presupposition that the Bible contains all that is necessary for his faith and practice. Within the pages of God’s sufficient revelation are the necessary principles, precepts, and patterns for believers to make wisdom decisions on any matter of Christian ethics. Those who argue that the Bible is silent on ethical issues like birth control are merely substituting their own private ethical judgment for God’s Word. Although I would disagree with his exegesis, I would soundly respect a preacher who assumed the sufficiency of Scripture on the issue of birth control, but made his case in favor of birth control from the Bible alone — not arguments from silence or claims of biblical neutrality. No Bible-believing Christian should respect or tolerate the argument that God has left us without a revelation to sufficiently make ethical decisions.

The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, as understood by the great Reformers and authors of our historic confessions, means that the Bible does address (either explicitly or principally) the ethical issues necessary to reach a definitive conclusion on the legitimacy of all ethical issues, including deliberate child prevention. The alternative to the sufficiency of Scripture is the dangerous practice of proof-texting (i.e., “I will only look to the Bible as a guide on the issue of birth control if you can find me a specific passage that addresses birth control”). To argue that one needs a proof-text forbidding an act, else it is valid, is not only bad theology, it is pure foolishness. The Bible does not say “don’t buy girlie magazines,” but it certainly gives the believer enough information that, under most normative circumstances of which we might conceive, the purpose of such a purchase would be clearly unwise and God-dishonoring. Similarly, notwithstanding the fact that marijuana, heroine, and similar hallucinogens may nowhere be mentioned in the Bible by name or category, God’s Word is replete with the necessary principles whereby the Christian can conclude that the use of such drugs for recreational narcotic use is absolutely unacceptable.

Opponents of the historic doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture and advocates of proof-texting are ultimately left without a legitimate moral compass on matters of ethics. It is not that they have no ethical guide, it is simply they have transferred authority from God’s revelation to their own imaginations. Because they assume the silence of Scripture, they insert the authority of their own minds. Often, they become libertines, at which point their best arguments are: “I cannot personally find a text in the Scripture on the subject of birth control, therefore anyone who opposes the Pill is a legalist.” At this point, their arguments are no longer driven by theology, but by their own personal morality.

God’s Word is sufficient. Let us study it carefully to seek His will, especially on issues like child birth where He is so thorough, so emphatic and so clear as to His vision for man.

For more on this, please see our book Be Fruitful and Multiply: What the Bible Says About Having Children.

Recovering from Vasectomies

Over the years, I have received many hundreds of testimonies like the following:

Dear Mr. Phillips,

Bless you, Mr. Phillips for encouraging couples to be fruitful and multiply and putting this area of their lives under the Lordship of Christ. I haven’t read the book you are now selling “Be Fruitful and Multiply” by Nancy Campbell. I am sure it is wonderful and I will be ordering it ASAP to add to our library so that my husband and I can continue to minister in encouraging couples to put their reproductive lives into the hands of the Lord. The more resources on this issue, the better! Blessings, Mrs.K

Response to ‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’

Dear Vision Forum

I keep thinking of Doug Phillips’ lectures on multigenerational families and thought THIS was a marvelous connection. I am still goggling over the multilayered meanings and subtleties of meanings in the Lord’s Word about BUILDING nations, cities, dwellings, and the Tabernacle. These are all richly nuanced with God’s mighty vision of multigeneration families/dynasties/tribes whom will all ultimately dwell together in Heaven with Him. God bless! Mrs A.B

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 21, 2004 | Permalink

Early Thoughts on Marriage
By Nathaniel Cotton (1705-1788)

Those awful words “Til death do part”
May well alarm the youthful heart:
No after-thought when once a wife;
The die is cast, and cast for life;
Yet thousands venture every day
As some base passion leads the way.

‘Tis an important point to know,
There’s no perfection here below.
Man’s an odd compound after all,
And ever has been since the Fall.
Say, that he loves you from his soul,
Still man is proud, nor brooks control.
And though a slave in love’s soft school,
In wedlock claims his right to rule.
The best, in short, has faults about him,
If few those faults, you must not flout him.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 18, 2004 | Permalink

The providence of God is more than a distant, unattainable doctrine professed by ancient clerics. It is a living, breathing reality which should fire the spiritual passion and calm the soul of every true believer in Jesus Christ. It is motivation for the believer. It is hope. It is life.

And for the Phillips family, it is even more: It is the peace of a newborn baby. It is the hope of future generations. It is the beauty of a child.

On December 11, 2003, at 4:35 in the morning, God brought into this world and to the Phillips family a blessed answer to prayer, our fourth son and seventh child, Providence Mather Phillips. He was born in the comfort and safety of our home, assisted by the able hands of our midwife. We thank God for that “kind and special providence” of Christ to so privilege us with the responsibility and joy of such a gift. May the glorious name of Jehovah be praised in the life of this boy

On January 7, we asked a small handful of brothers and sisters in the Lord to join us for an evening of blessing, of covenantal commitments as a family, and for the announcement of the name of God’s new gift to the Phillips household.

For the better part of an hour, we read from Scripture of the providence of God, we spoke of the multi-generational Mather family who kept covenant one with another for at least four generations and who Washington once described as America’s true founding fathers.

We read from a rare and ancient Bible — the first “free” family Bible published in the United States — the introduction of which was written by John Witherspoon himself, the clergyman who trained approximately one sixth of the members of the Constitutional Convention in Reformation principles of law and government, and who introduced to the Declaration of Independence the phrase, “with a firm reliance on divine Providence.”

We lifted our child to the Lord and prayed for his soul, his life mission, his future spouse, and the generations yet to be born who might proceed from him. My sons prayed over him and purposed to stand with their father as we together raise Providence in the fear and nurture of the Lord. And dear men prayed for my son — blessed men. Friends who have stood with us after the birth of each of our children since moving to Texas.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 17, 2004 | Permalink

Today we received this:

Everyday, I admit, I must check out “Doug’s Blog” and read with delight all that is written. I enjoy all the serious issues that are addressed and I delight in the more lighthearted little stories (and photographs) that are also addressed. However, there is one thing that has been bothering me for over a month now... and that is the name of the newest Phillips baby!! He’s an adorable little baby... and it’s truly charming to see the photos of him with all the other children... but I’m so very curious to know what name was chosen for him!! Any chance that you’ll be revealing the name soon?! Carla in MN ... mama to nine

God bless you, Carla. I joyously will announce his name by e-mail broadcast today!

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 16, 2004 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 15, 2004 | Permalink

Wonderful, sweet, beloved daughters — God’s special gift to fathers. They remind us that we are men and protectors of womankind. They keep us young as we seek to win their hearts and perpetually court them. Can we ever love them enough? How quickly they grow up. Oh, Lord, give us more time with our daughters.

Yesterday was the fourth birthday of my own dear Faith Evangeline. As I do with each of my children on their birthday, Daddy spent the better part of the day with Faith Evangeline alone, having a special meal, telling funny stories, reminding her of her calling in Christ, and spoiling her just a little. This year, we graduated from bean burritos (a Phillips child favorite) at Las Palapas, to Strawberries Romanoff at La Madaleine (my daughters’ favorite foofy frill, frill female eatery). The picture below is her third birthday, January 14, 2003, and the one that follows was her fourth, January 14, 2004.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 15, 2004 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 15, 2004 | Permalink

At the beginning of 2003, I was given a challenge by an esteemed Christian brother. He told me that he had just completed a thorough reading of the entire Bible in one long sitting. The sitting lasted the better part of the week. But the experience of reading God’s Word from beginning to end was incomparable to any other experience he had enjoyed in his Christian walk. It was his way of immersing himself in the Word of God for a fresh start to a fresh year.

His vision was clear to me. After all, one gets a completely different perspective — a panoramic perspective — when one reads the entire story of God’s providential history and message for man, as opposed to picking and choosing a verse here and there, or even reading individual chapters. Imagine sitting through a gripping three hour movie epic. Now multiply the significance, the beauty, the power, and the spiritual refreshment exponentially, and you can begin to appreciate the blessing of reading the Bible from beginning to end in one unbroken session.

I admitted to my friend that the thought was intriguing, but that I was simply unable to do that in 2003.

Enter 2004. With thanks in my heart for the many merciful providences of God, and with a keen sense of duty, personal limitations, passion, and hunger to live meaningfully for God in this new year, I revisited before my family the idea that we might accept this great challenge. We concluded that we were unable to commit in one unbroken setting the entire seventy-five hours of reading we estimated to be necessary to complete the Bible, but we could start the process.

Next, I brought it before the brothers in my local assembly. I was shocked and delighted to discover their wholehearted support for the idea, and to discover about thirty of them who would be willing to give up an entire Friday from 8:30 in the morning to about 8:00 at night for a reading of the Scripture.

We decided to focus on the men. Our goal was to give our men a time of firm foundations to encourage them in their leadership and manhood. To God be the glory, about thirty of them, fathers and sons, arrived for what proved to be one of the great experiences of our lives.

Our protocol was to give every person an opportunity to read multiple chapters of the Holy Scriptures to the group assembled. Many of us read from an extremely rare and valuable 1791 family Bible — the first family Bible commissioned in America, the forward of which was written by John Witherspoon, the same Founding Father who introduced into the Declaration of Independence the expression, “with a firm reliance on divine Providence.” Above, my son Justice reads from the book of Exodus.

Reading the Bible aloud was a great blessing for both reader and listeners. All of us followed along in our own Scriptures, making notes as we thought of fresh questions, or noticed exciting new patterns in Scripture which had been previously unnoticed by us.

We actually began our day with the challenge to love the Law of God by reading through the entire chapter of Psalm 119. From there we went straight to the beginning with Genesis and continued to read in chronological order. Reading for more than ten hours was not a chore. It was an absolute delight. We had scheduled five and ten minute breaks at the top of each hour, but oftentimes the men would want to continue.

The happiest part of my day was at the very close of the reading when my son Joshua (pictured above) hugged me very hard and said: “Daddy, thank you so much for doing this with me. It was one of the greatest things we have ever done together.”

Some men were stronger readers than others, but we encouraged each other in the Lord and delighted that each of us could grow together.

At the end of the day, we had only completed a few books of the Bible, but all of us agreed that our expedition through God’s Word had been transforming. We are now working on plans for another full day of reading in February. Our goal is to complete the Bible in about five or six more full day readings throughout the year.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 13, 2004 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 12, 2004 | Permalink

Dear Vision Forum:

Thank you so much for supporting the family! I am fifteen years old, and appreciate the way that Vision Forum promotes beautiful girlhood. I received Verses of Virtue and Beloved Bride yesterday. It was my first order from you all, and I was highly impressed. I am so grateful to have such a strong support as I seek to grow from a “beautiful girl” into a godly woman. And please tell Mrs. Phillips that I said thank you so much for compiling Verses of Virtue. Yours truly,

Miss Smith

Thanks from a Wife

We have recently ordered many things online through your Web site. We have thoroughly enjoyed everthing that we have received. We recently listened to the CDs, A Wise Woman’s Guide. Wow, how profound! I cannot believe that I have wasted the last twenty years on being a contentious wife. To think that I put so much effort into making my husband miserable, I praise God he has stayed with me for these twenty years. I have been so ashamed of my actions and have become so convicted I just want to cry. Praise God that I have such a loving and forgiving husband. Anyway, we just wanted to let you know how much we have enjoyed your products, the kids love it when we get your catalog. Thanks again, God bless you all! A.P.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 12, 2004 | Permalink

Vision Forum proudly publishes volumes 1-12 of Martha Finley’s original Elsie Dinsmore series. With the help of Faith and Freedom tour guide and Vision Forum narrator, Bill Potter, we have also placed volumes 1-3 on audiocassette. The stories reflect the strong Calvinistic sensibilities of the author, are overtly Christian from beginning to end, and remain as captivating today as they were when they sold millions of copies in the nineteenth century. Theological criticisms have been lodged against Elsie by some Anabaptists who disagree with the strong emphasis on biblical law and the sovereignty of God, or who consider it inappropriate that the protagonist comes from a wealthy family. Others have objected to the perspective of these antebellum Christian novels which favorably paint a picture of the southern household. Still others have objected to the position taken by Elsie to obey the Ten Commandments even when such obedience went against the advice of unbelieving authority figures. In our view, these novels are enormously encouraging books that reinforce a courageous and virtuous perspective on Christian girlhood. Below is a note we received from one home-school mom yesterday:

We just had to let you know how our daughter has devoured the first book on tape of Elsie Dinsmore. She received this as a gift on Christmas morning and had all six tapes completed by New Years Eve! She would retire to her room by 7pm each night just to hear it! The next day she would talk about Elsie and how good she is at only eight! I found her reading her Bible two times without being told! THANK YOU for putting these on tape! Will you be putting all the series on tape? I hope so! Please let me know! A grateful home! The Freemans

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 11, 2004 | Permalink

Do Home School Parents Need a College Degree to Be Successful?

Many of your letters have not only been passionate, but touching and poignant. Some of you, perplexed that Mr. Sandlin continues to lecture in home schooling circles, have observed the trend of mean-spiritedness on the part of this cleric which can be traced over the last couple of years to barrage after barrage of uncharitable name-calling, innuendo, misrepresentation, and out-and-out accusation against brothers in Christ. As one mother who did not want to be considered a “birthing machine” observed: sticks and stones will break bones, but names can really hurt a mom.

Nevertheless, the straw men and the mean-spirited name calling continues, something we will examine when we publish a formal and more comprehensive response to this current attack on patriarchy, home schooling, and motherhood by Mr. Sandlin. For now, consider the following claims by Mr. Sandlin:

They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as major media, popular music, theater and ballet, and elite universities with the mantra, “The main thing is to have lots of children and to teach the boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and discover dinosaur bones and girls to make homemade biscuits, crochet blankets, and gather huckleberries.” I’m being somewhat facetious of course, but the resistance to cultural leadership in favor of agrarian domesticity is genuine. (2002 CCL Article as quoted in Buried Treasure Books.

There are many Christians who hold these views, and I don’t want to be mean, but they are wrong. They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as the major media and popular music, and theater and ballet and elite universities with the attitude “Well, you know the main thing is just to have children and to teach boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and to teach girls to make homemade biscuits and crochet blankets and to gather huckleberries.” ... And the real problem is that you would get the impression from these folks is that this is the only godly way. In fact, some teach — I saw this recently, and it frightened me — some teach that if you fathers send your daughters off to college, you are abdicating your responsibility as a dad. In fact, some teach that girls shouldn’t go off to college at all. Heaven forbid that we should have educate women! Heaven forbid! Sad, just stay home and raise chickens and crochet blankets.... And by the way, speaking of our dear ladies, where are we going to get those world trained mothers who want to home school their children? They are going to need some college training. (Sermon given on November 8, 2003 in Corpus Christi, Texas, entitled “Very Pious, Very Bad Ideas.”)

With all due respect, I have been around home educators for the better part of my life, I have personally spoken to well over a quarter of a million home educators as a conference speaker, and I have yet to meet one person who believes daughters should not be educated. I know many Christians who object to training daughters to be men, but none who believe that daughters should not be trained to their full potential, practically and academically, consistent with the vision of biblical womanhood so clearly and constantly communicated in the Word of God. Many fathers and mothers take seriously the biblical mandate to protect and train their daughters until they are “given” in marriage, and are exceedingly wise not to release them to a virtual state of independency in God-hating, pagan-culture-drenched universities for four years. Unfortunately, Mr. Sandlin’s simplistic overview is a polemicist’s caricature, not a thoughtful critique of a position which was the nearly universal view in Christendom for two thousand years.

Secondly, I must honestly ask — where has this California cleric been for the last twenty years? The idea that only college-trained mothers (or fathers) can be successful in their home education is not only offensively elitist, but it is a proposition which has been comprehensively and exhaustively refuted on theological and statistical grounds. This type of bad logic was used against home educators by the National Education Association (NEA), local school superintendents, and others during the early days of the modern home education movement. It was refuted so soundly that one hears little of these types of arguments, except when coming from those who are unfamiliar with home education. Tens of thousands of moms and dads without a college degree, yet with outstanding home school success stories, are proof positive that there is no significant correlation between formal college training and the ability to give a child an outstanding program of academics and discipleship. To learn about the home schooling statistics, may I recommend that you visit the Web site of my friend, Dr. Brian Ray at NHERI.

Finally, may I recommend my two-tape or CD series, Making Wise Decisions about College and Life After Home School, for a presuppositional analysis of the issues and facts which it would be wise to consider when evaluating the who, what, when, where, and why of higher education.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 4, 2004 | Permalink

Many of your letters have not only been passionate, but touching and poignant. Some of you, perplexed that Mr. Sandlin continues to lecture in home schooling circles, have observed the trend of mean-spiritedness on the part of this cleric which can be traced over the last couple of years to barrage after barrage of uncharitable name-calling, innuendo, misrepresentation, and out-and-out accusation against brothers in Christ. As one mother who did not want to be considered a “birthing machine” observed: sticks and stones will break bones, but names can really hurt a mom.

Nevertheless, the straw men and the mean-spirited name calling continues, something we will examine when we publish a formal and more comprehensive response to this current attack on patriarchy, home schooling, and motherhood by Mr. Sandlin. For now, consider the following claims by Mr. Sandlin:

They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as major media, popular music, theater and ballet, and elite universities with the mantra, “The main thing is to have lots of children and to teach the boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and discover dinosaur bones and girls to make homemade biscuits, crochet blankets, and gather huckleberries.” I’m being somewhat facetious of course, but the resistance to cultural leadership in favor of agrarian domesticity is genuine. (2002 CCL Article as quoted in Buried Treasure Books.

There are many Christians who hold these views, and I don’t want to be mean, but they are wrong. They counter the idea that Christians should work to recapture such culturally relevant spheres as the major media and popular music, and theater and ballet and elite universities with the attitude “Well, you know the main thing is just to have children and to teach boys to shoot pigeons and whittle and to teach girls to make homemade biscuits and crochet blankets and to gather huckleberries.” ... And the real problem is that you would get the impression from these folks is that this is the only godly way. In fact, some teach — I saw this recently, and it frightened me — some teach that if you fathers send your daughters off to college, you are abdicating your responsibility as a dad. In fact, some teach that girls shouldn’t go off to college at all. Heaven forbid that we should have educate women! Heaven forbid! Sad, just stay home and raise chickens and crochet blankets.... And by the way, speaking of our dear ladies, where are we going to get those world trained mothers who want to home school their children? They are going to need some college training. (Sermon given on November 8, 2003 in Corpus Christi, Texas, entitled “Very Pious, Very Bad Ideas.”)

With all due respect, I have been around home educators for the better part of my life, I have personally spoken to well over a quarter of a million home educators as a conference speaker, and I have yet to meet one person who believes daughters should not be educated. I know many Christians who object to training daughters to be men, but none who believe that daughters should not be trained to their full potential, practically and academically, consistent with the vision of biblical womanhood so clearly and constantly communicated in the Word of God. Many fathers and mothers take seriously the biblical mandate to protect and train their daughters until they are “given” in marriage, and are exceedingly wise not to release them to a virtual state of independency in God-hating, pagan-culture-drenched universities for four years. Unfortunately, Mr. Sandlin’s simplistic overview is a polemicist’s caricature, not a thoughtful critique of a position which was the nearly universal view in Christendom for two thousand years.

Secondly, I must honestly ask — where has this California cleric been for the last twenty years? The idea that only college-trained mothers (or fathers) can be successful in their home education is not only offensively elitist, but it is a proposition which has been comprehensively and exhaustively refuted on theological and statistical grounds. This type of bad logic was used against home educators by the National Education Association (NEA), local school superintendents, and others during the early days of the modern home education movement. It was refuted so soundly that one hears little of these types of arguments, except when coming from those who are unfamiliar with home education. Tens of thousands of moms and dads without a college degree, yet with outstanding home school success stories, are proof positive that there is no significant correlation between formal college training and the ability to give a child an outstanding program of academics and discipleship. To learn about the home schooling statistics, may I recommend that you visit the Web site of my friend, Dr. Brian Ray at NHERI.

Finally, may I recommend my two-tape or CD series, Making Wise Decisions about College and Life After Home School, for a presuppositional analysis of the issues and facts which it would be wise to consider when evaluating the who, what, when, where, and why of higher education.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 4, 2004 | Permalink

2004 marks a graduation point for the modern home school movement. It was twenty-one years ago in 1983 that home education began to emerge as a national movement. Of the great leaders who emerged in those early days of home education, some lost the vision, changed the vision, or just moved on. But many others remained faithful to the vision of family discipleship, biblical patriarchy, and multi-generational faithfulness. One of those early pioneers who continues to remain true to the biblical message, and after more than two decades perseveres in their home education, is the Michael Bradrick family of Washington state. This year, Vision Forum experienced the tremendous blessing of having twenty-year-old Peter Bradrick intern with out ministry. Peter emerged as one of the finest interns we have had the privilege of mentoring. Last week, the Bradrick family made a two-week trip to retrieve their son and fellowship with the saints in San Antonio.

Posted by Doug Phillips on January 2, 2004 | Permalink